Saturday, July 11, 2009

Do-It-Herself: harder than I'd expected

I remember putting together Legos at the kitchen table with my mom. Hours and hours, we'd pore over the instructions, heads bent together. Sometimes Mom would do homework while I worked on a space ship, interrupting her chemistry equations for help.

It turns out I owe my mom a huge debt of thanks. Tonight I "helped" Noelani put together an Erector set race car. The agony of frustration, the blood pouring from my tongue as I bit it again and again, the desperate need to just get my hands on the pieces and put them together quickly and accurately! I learned how difficult it is to sit by and help only when asked: hold this wrench, find that piece. To let her do it herself. Wow, thanks, Mom!

Oh, and by the way, the Erector Set people oughta sue Ikea. Once a person has put together a house worth of furniture with that fucking little Allen wrench, he or she has no desire to ever see another little plastic bag of hardware, especially not for entertainment.

Finally, what's the name of the wrench that usually comes as a [wrenchnamehere] on one end and a box wrench on the other end? Is it just plain "wrench"? (Spanner, anyone?)

G'night, sleep tight, oh let's not worry about the rest of that phrase.